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​BLOG BY GRACE C. YOUNG ﻿﻿

What is historic Mission 31 (and why is it so special?) This great video from Fusion explains the story very well: "Living underwater gives ocean explorers an incredible advantage. Unlike normal surface diving, where a person can only stay underwater a few hours a day, Mission 31 aquanauts can be under the surface for 12 hours or more. This is because their bodies are saturated with nitrogen, allowing them to live at the same pressure as the water that surrounds them."

"To put it in perspective, it would take a normal diver six months to collect the amount of data that the aquanauts can obtain in 31 days."

"To say the least, Mission 31 is ... cool."

The cast of characters includes ... yours truly, Grace under no pressure :)

Author

Grace Young is an MIT ocean engineer, aquanaut, and scientist/engineer with Cousteau's Mission 31. She's currently a PhD student at University of Oxford, chief scientist for the Pisces VI deepsea submarine, and a National Geographic Emerging Explorer.